For the uninitiated: Detroit born and raised, Blackwell is a drummer for one of the city's most consistently popular bands, the garage-rock revivalists the Dirtbombs. He also runs Cass Records, an influential independent record label, and he recently wrote, recorded, and released a solo album, I Remember When All This Was Trees. Two years ago, he left Detroit for Nashville to oversee vinyl production for his uncle Jack White's record label, Third Man Records. Not long after, bumper stickers started popping up in Detroit asking, WHERE IS BEN BLACKWELL?

Thoughts on his hometown: "Detroit will never be what it once was, but that's not to say it can't be a thriving town again. It's a place for opportunity. It's an affordable blank canvas. You can thrive here with minimal effort."

Wait, a cemetery? "My song for Esquire is about a cemetery on the east side of Detroit called Elmwood Cemetery. I took a Michigan history class in high school where the teacher taught us that the original landscape of rolling hills and ponds is nonexistent now. Civilization and industrialization took over. Elmwood is really the only spot in the city that retains the original landscape. It's filled with history. The range of people buried there — from Revolutionary War soldiers to early legislator Lewis Cass; from Coleman Young, the controversial mayor, to Fred Smith from the MC5. I'm obsessed with the place."